5 CH 5

I shook my head to clear the pink cobwebs Edythe had created in it and looked for Bella to see if she was alright. Seeing her chatting and walking with the boy called Mike, I figured she must be fine and decided to walk towards the gym by myself.

I walked in to see volleyball was the game of the day, four sets of the game were taking place simultaneously.

After talking to the coach I discussed my sports records with him and swiftly went and got into the gym uniform. Coach made me join a game as a substitute for a short guy who was clearly huffing and puffing like a steam engine.

I replaced him and about fifteen minutes later, my team demolished the opposing team with a stellar performance. It was not as if I did all the work, I also took care of instructing the rest to be in the proper position for responding, which allowed each one in my team to fully contribute.

As the bell sounded for the end of the Gym class, I swiftly raced to the gym lockers and changed into my regular clothes after a quick shower.

Grabbing my teachers signature slip from my bag, I turned my steps towards the front office. Reaching it I saw Bella coming out of it with a frustrated expression on her face and tears in her eyes.

I was shocked to see her like that and immediately stopped her.

"Bella what happened ? Why are you crying? Are you hurt ? Did someone say anything to you?" I fired off a barrage of questions at her.

"Nothing, its fine" she said while wiping the moisture away from her eyes "Just me being overemotional due to the actions of a jerk, who doesn't deserve me caring so much about him and what he does." She mumbled and she moved away from me in a hurry.

"I have a feeling this is about Edward and the way he acted around her. But truly, she is a bit of an emotional wreck isn't she?" I muttered to myself as I went to the office to submit my slip and after a brief chat I was free to go home.

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On the way home, I kept thinking about the events of the day in loop. I had found two people who I can somewhat call my friends.

I had found that I would probably not have to study as much to pass with good grades here. The sports department could use a bit of work as most students would barely even be called athletic here.

And finally, there was that mysterious thing that happened to me, when I was with Bella. The weird transformation of my finger to a wood like material similar to the desk I was doodling on.

'If we assume I do have a super power, what was I doing then to awaken it? Or hold on a second, did I awaken it during that weird incident that happened yesterday?"

"Even if we assume I am right, and that I awoke my power during that incident, then that must mean I was subconsciously using it today. But I was not in any danger or need, why would a power activate on its own. Does not make any sense now, does it? I was just doodling …."

It was like a light bulb went ping inside my head, 'I was doodling on a wooden desk with bare nails during that. Doodling with nails should have been so easy as it felt this morning, I had managed to make very nice swirly grooves rather than scratches.'

'So there is the need and action, now I need to figure out the trigger. Scratching? No, can't be simple like that. Maybe wood shaving got accumulated in my nails?'

'Wood shaving managed to make my finger tip become like itself. Which means I must have somehow either absorb the properties of the wood that made the desk, or I must only be able to transform into wood which coincidentally happened to be similar to the desk. The odds of the latter being true is much less than the former based on the clues I have.'

'So lets assume I have the power to absorb the properties of certain stuff and transform myself into it. Or correction of that statement would be that I am able to absorb the properties of stuff that I touch and then transform my body to a living body version of the same stuff. Now, how do I do that?'

I was lost in thought, deriving and rejecting various hypothesis. Suddenly, I had an inspiration, 'I wasn't thinking while transforming previously, it must have been instinctive.'

"I must have subconsciously transformed to make my action, the doodling on desk, easier to accomplish. What if I didn't think about it and just wished for it to happen and observe?" I muttered to myself.

I put my hand on the dashboard and tried to wish for my hand to become of the same stuff. When that didn't work I tried to mentally pull and push the material of the dashboard so that I may somehow be able to absorb it.

I was completely focused on it, with one eye barely open to see where I was driving. Suddenly, I felt a change beneath my hand, as if it had become a bottomless swamp. My entire right arm sunk directly into the dashboard and the next moment the car went out of control.

I could just look on helplessly, as the car went off the road and crashed into an old and thick tree by the road. The whole road was silent for a while, except for a few tweets from frightened birds and crackling and steaming sounds coming from the car.

After a few more moment, a dark grey colored leg kicked open the passenger side door. I walked out, more accurately crawled out of the car, coughing and moaning.

All parts of my body were covered in a dark grey material, except for a small patch on my chest where it looked like some ribs might be cracked or broken.

Slowly crawling a few feet away from the car, I groaned in pain as the dark material swiftly receded from my body.

I barely managed to stay conscious to dial the number for the local police department and mumble out the word 'Accident' and 'Help' a few times when they answered it. Too weak and dizzy to do anything else, I just put the phone on the ground and rested to ease my ribs and chest.

'That is the last time I do something stupid like experimenting in a moving vehicle with powers I don't understand yet,' I gave a few more groans mentally as I didn't have the energy to do it out loud.

I held on until he heard the faint sounds of police siren, after which my consciousness started to fade away.

Just as I was looking around in the moments before fainting, I seemed to see something. I didn't know if it was an illusion or not, but I thought I saw a black wolf as big as a bear, staring at me from the forest momentarily.

It's gaze looked too intelligent and disapproving, as if it was scolding me for my recklessness, but then again I was hurt and might have been hallucinating.

I sleepily felt myself being lifted into a stretcher and someone barking orders to seal the place, until they could get someone to tow my car for impound. Slight jerks while being picked up made me groan in my sleepy state, until I finally passed out for good due to sheer exhaustion.

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I found himself back in that weird dark space as yesterday. However there were no longer any floating lights. But it seemed as if I came here for a reason, something that I knew but forgot.

As I thought back to the last time, I remembered that apart from unlocking my power, I also got something called MAMMOTHS. Wanting to smack myself for forgetting such an important thing, I mentally called out, 'MAMMOTHS'.

[Monitoring Auxiliary Mystical Manual Operation Type Helper System is now Active. Please State your query.]

'What are you exactly, MAMMOTHS?'

[My function is apparent in the name Host. I am a Monitoring Auxiliary Mystical Manual Operation Type Helper System.]

[It means that while I am ever present and active, I can only respond actively when you want me to.]

[As such, I have no direct action-taking protocols. I am only here to help Host master his powers if he needs my help and states as such. Also I can solve various queries regarding your powers and perform some minor assistance in some areas.]

'Okay, lets start with what exactly are my powers.'

[As an Osmotic Meta-Morph, hosts powers include absorbing essence or properties of any material, energy or being and store them like a signature, which can be done with my help.]

[This will help you transform yourself based on the same signature. Also you can fuse multiple signatures with my help to form compound signatures that will provide host with hybrid abilities.]

[When in transformed state, host has a very high level of control over constituent material, energy or DNA contained in the signature.]

[When transformed with material properties, host can use that material to heal injuries suffered and control or manipulate the said material to perform various tasks.]

[When transformed with certain energy signature, host gets the ability to control the said energy like a kinesis type ability. For eg: transforming with a fire energy signature gives host pyrokinesis abilities.]

[Finally, when transforming with a living being's DNA, it will give you the ability of the said being. Host can also manipulate the DNA to be stronger than the original power of the race the DNA belongs to.]

[For Eg: if host uses a Lion's DNA, you can manipulate to a certain extent to make yourself a stronger, faster, more agile and larger lion. Same with other beings and their respective specialities.]

'Why did I destroy my car today? What did I do wrong?'

[Host technically did nothing wrong, you did as you instincts dictated and used your powers and were successful to a certain extent.]

[However, as I stated here, Material transformation gives you ability to control the said material. While pushing and pulling at the structure of the material of the dashboard with your mind, host by mistake made their structure distort, creating malfunction in the mechanism of your car.]

[Host needs a lot of control over your ability before you can try control techniques. Currently it would be best if Host only used his abilities in a defensive manner, such as transforming to increase strength, defense and recovery ability.]

[Once host has mastered that, then host can work on control part of your ability. And once host has mastered control, I will instruct host in how to hybridize two or more signatures.]

'Alright, how do I absorb properties of various materials, energy or beings?'

[That is very easy host, you already had partial success in it.]

'But I didn't exactly understand it, so please explain what did I almost manage to do then.'

[The trick is to breathe host.]

'Breathe?'

[Yes. Not command, not wish or imagine. You have to breathe it in. However the breathing here you need to do is not air through nose and mouth to your lungs.]

[No, by breathing I am referring to sensing the material through your haptic system, or sense of touch, and then absorb the essence of it as if you are breathing it in through your touch as a medium. You will get the hang of it through practice host.]

'Okay, I will do that. Now how do I get out of here?'

[Whatever do you mean host? You were never anywhere else. After all, This is all in your head.]

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